$2500.00 to spend on int.amp and cd player

I think a good switching amp would make a good match with the Paradigms. I use an Onkyo A-9555 to drive my Mirage OMD-15s, which are also narrow ported tower floorstanders from Canada with multiple small diameter woofers. The switching amp provides excellent speed and clarity and brings out the low level detail in dynamic speakers such as these. The NuForce IA-7 v2 integrated lists at $1695 and should be a serious step up or two from my Onkyo (which is surprisingly good).

For CD player you might consider an Oppo DV-980H at $169 plus the best DAC you can afford with the money left over--perhaps a used Benchmark DAC-1. Otherwise, more and more high quality sub $1K DACs are hitting the market, such as the Cambridge DACMagic and the Musical Fidelity V-DAC.

Maybe you should just get a laptop, download iTunes, rip all your CDs using lossless compression, and play them through a USB DAC such as the HRT Music Streamer+.

Musical Fidelity A308 integrated and A308 cd player. I have had this combination in the past along with Paradigm Studio 40 v3 speakers. It was a great combination. The A308 series components are built like tanks. I see there are some used on Audiogon now, and can be had within your budget. I do not know the sellers.

Thanks for the suggestions. I finally settled on a Rogue Audio Tempest II Magnum,Cary CDP-1 and changed my speakers to Tyler Acoustics 7U. I love the way this set-up sounds.

I have a Cronus and Rotel 1072, and am pleased.

Cronus is great. If you can get a modded SACD from Sony (either a modwright or Vacuum State) it would be much better than a retail unit at that price. My VSE Level-5 Sony SACD beats up on the Cary units mentioned above, and cost me $1100 here on the 'gon.

You could get the Naim Nait and CD5i. You can get the newest version (italic i)for about $2k right now on A'gon. The Naim Nait gets universal praise for its musical sound.

Great advice Saki70.

How about a Primaluna Prologue 2 integrated amp and a Cary 303/200 or 308T CDP ? This combo can be had today from Audiogon used for <$2000 and these pieces can be easily sold if you don't like them .

The Primaluna can achieve different sounds by rolling a myriad of input and output tubes while being nearly maintance free . I believe the Cary CDP's to be a step or two above the NAD units .

Rega does a bang up job in the CDP department.

I'd not exclude a Sony SCD XA777es, or even the older SCD 777 2ch unit. The XA is better though, and more flexible.

The new Cambridge units too are worth checking out to meet your $$$ constraints.

...and many choose a cheap DVDP with a DAC like Apogee, Benchmark, or Lavry, as these have jitter lessening circuitry.

I'm not such a big fan of the NAD CD players. I think you'd get better value from the likes of Cambridge, Arcam or Musical Fidelity from the British ranks. Others worth trying to audition with the Rogue amp might be the new Bryston player or the entry level Moon. I'm sure others here have many more recommendations of US brands. Don't know much about the Rogue Cronus.